Omnia Vincit Amor
by Lost-Blue-Phantom
Summary: Love really did conquer all, Marius decided.


**A/N: I'm back! Again! I've now gone from not reading the book, to not finishing it. I've just gotten to the part where we meet Friends of the ABC. So, I'm better there. I made the mistake of buying the unabridged version. Otherwise, I totally would've been done by now! Anyway, this fic was for another challenge. The A Little Place of Heaven frist writing challenge, which entails the following (as taken from the A Little Place of Heaven forum, over in the Warriors section): **

**Prompt :: **Friendship **(Done)**

**Requirements :: **

- _One shot_ challenge **(Done)**

- At _least_ 500 words **(Done)**

- Can be writen in any fandom with any characters **(Done!)**

- _Must_ contain a conflict that **A)** brings the friends together or **B)** shows why the person(s) better from the conflict. **(I chose conflict B, and you'll have to tell me how I did on that).**

- _Should_ incorporate at least one or more of the following ideas and/or items : _Omnia Vincit Amor_ (love conquers all), friendship rings/bracelets/necklaces, pictures, summer, some sort of group activity, and discussion. **(Ideas/images incorporated: Omnia Vincit Amor, bracelets, summer, and some sort of group activity ((hey, dying at the Barricades can be a group activity!)))**

* * *

It was June 5th. How did Marius know this? His barricade wounds were hurting. They loved taunting him on the day he had started to lose all his dear friends. The pain was only minor now, but by the end of the day and into the next day, it would intensify, and would often prevent him from focusing on anything. His wounds consistently reminded him that he, the one who had wanted to join least, had survived, while dedicated people like Enjolras had died.

And then there was 'Ponine. Brave, selfless 'Ponine, who had risked her life for him, delivering his message to Cosette. And yet, she had gone to the Barricade with every intention of dying. Still, she died to save him, and he was comforted by the peace she now had in Heaven. She had died first, he thought sadly. He had been a dreamy little thing before the barricades, thinking that no one would die, and they would emerge victorious. It wasn't until he held Eponine's body in his arms, that he realized that he was wrong. Her death was a brutal wake up call. He wished her journey had taken longer. With a sigh, he got up out of his bed, trying not to disturb Cosette. He grabbed flowers, which had been delicately placed by his bedside, and left the house.

It was raining lightly. Marius hardly noticed this. His thoughts still dwindled on 'Ponine. She had been too good of a friend to him, to die the way she did. Marius thought of all he made her do. He asked him to help find Cosette, help keep watch as he and Cosette interacting. She had warned him when robbers were near. She brought his letters to Cosette, and never complained about it. His insides squirmed with guilt, as the only reason she had done any of it, had died for him was because she loved him. "Omnia Vincit Amor," he muttered to himself. "Love conquers all." Eponine's love for him had saved him, and his and Cosette's love had flourished.

"Papa!" A small child of four cried out to him, standing the door way of the house. He stopped and turned around "Where are you going?" she asked curiously. She had inherited Cosette's small face and curly hair, and she constantly dreamed for better days for everyone like he did. But those big brown eyes, he had not been able to place them for the longest time. He realized, as he was thinking about Eponine, that they were her eyes, and he had named the child accordingly.

"'nine," he said tiredly, coming to pat the small child on her head. "What are you doing up?" She looked up at him, wonder in her big eyes. He tried not to notice. She slipped her small hand into his big one, and he looked down at his daughter. "Do you want to come with me?" he asked her. She nodded eagerly, squeezing her father's hand, as they departed.

Eponine, he had remembered, loved the summer, and had died on a summer day. His daughter walked along at his side, looking at everything with wonder. It was only at their destination, a graveyard that his daughter shirked away from his grasp. "Do we have to go in there?"she whispered quietly.

"I have something to show you," he murmured to her. He wasn't sure why he was showing his daughter this. He had dug the grave and made the headstone once the bodies from the barricades had been left around for identification purposes. He carried her body away, crying as he did so, to where he had dug her grave. And it was only him that held her funeral, weeping as he did so. Holding his flowers in one hand, and his daughter's hand in the other, he pressed onward.

A cold thing hit his fingers, and he looked at his daughter's bracelet. He knew that Eponine was not always poor, and perhaps had bracelets when she was younger. Perhaps her eyes gleamed whenever she looked at them. For a moment, he was lost in a world where he imagined Eponine's childhood, and his hopes that the fall from greatness made her father the way he was, and he had not always been like that.

"Papa!" his daughter exclaimed excitedly, tugging his arm. "She has the same name I do!" His daughter pointed at the grave he had nearly missed. He stared blankly at the grave, as his daughter read the tombstone aloud. "Eponine," she said proudly, as if she had known what Eponine was like in life. As if she knew how much Marius had wanted to honor the woman lying six feet beneath them by naming his first daughter after her. "The . . . thedarn . . ." Little Eponine struggled with the last name.

"Thenardier," Marius said calmly, trying not to express the utter loathing he felt toward that name. Eponine never should've been a Thedanier. Again, he imagined a world where Eponine was raised by a man who was a lot like his late father-in-law. And once again, he was brought out of that reality, by looking at the tombstone once more.

"Thenarder," Little Eponine finished, looking to her father for a sign of approval. He smiled at her, and she beamed, reading the rest of the information on the tomb. "Omnia Vincit Amor," she read aloud, signaling she had finished what had been written on the tombstone. "What does that mean, Papa?"

He could not hold in his grin as he answered, "Love conquerors all." It was not the love he had shown her by any means. But it was enough to prove that the inscription he had chosen for her headstone was true.

* * *

**Okay, in my head, Marius and Cosette have twins. A boy and a girl, named Eponine and Jean, giving thanks to the two people that had brought them together! And I just realized that in Life Goes On, I said that Eponine had hazel eyes. Oh well. WHATEVER.**

**Anyway, I really hope you enjoyed that everyone! Review, please? **

**08.13.09- So, apparently, this fic tied for first with two other fics in the ALPoH challenge. Awesome. :D The other two fics were The Room by Georgasaurus and L'amour Conquiert Tous by Loves a Texan.**


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